Starting the 2024-2025 school year, MSHS admin and the building leadership team decided to enforce a new cellphone policy to encourage educational growth and engagement.
One of MSHS’s paras, Jon Murphy, believes that this cellphone policy is positive for Manitou students. “I think all of us are more engaged with the lessons that are going on,” Murphy said. “I notice that students are interacting more with each other in ways that remind me more of my old school.”
Murphy believes that the cellphone policy is a good way to share more collaborative time with students. “It feels like it’s happening in a much more dynamic, shared and collective way that I think is good,” Murphy said. “I think it brings people out of their own little boxes, so that they’re hearing questions that the class is asking, rather than being in their own world.”
Jessie Nunley, MSHS’s assistant principal, believes that the policy so far has been positive for educational purposes. “I think it really encourages and maximizes instructional time in the classroom for everybody across the board,” Nunley said. “I think that’s the best outcome, and I think people have really embraced that so far.”
Nunley feels that students have been intentionally staying off their phones and using other resources instead, which has caused more interaction with one another.
Ace Fridman (11), a student at MSHS, believes that the cellphone policy is a positive solution to distractions in school and the administration has done a good job finding a balance.
Fridman also believes that students engage more when cellphones are not being used. “It’s really cool to see my advisory now engage with one another and have conversations and talk, instead of just pulling out their cellphones,” Fridman said.
Nunley feels that she has heard lots of positive feedback from staff and students. “They feel like their classes are more connected with one another,” Nunley said. They’re actually interacting and engaging with one another, instead of either disconnecting because they’re on their phone or disconnecting because they’re on their personal device, listening to music.”
